Octal has been decommissioned, since it
has unfortunately been moribund for years, and other free software
packages have long since overtaken it.

Feb 2003.

The transition to GNU Objc is proceeding
smoothly. The nightly CVS should start compiling soon, and
the currently-out-of-date API docs will get revised shortly after that. In the
meantime, here are some interesting links to projects and standards that have
influenced Octal's direction:

OpenSoundControl --- An
interesting text-based protocol for the control of synthesizers. It actually
has the potential to do much more. Octal will use a variant of OSC.

Linux Audio Developer's mailing
list --- Home page for the low-latency hard-realtime audio application
gurus. The LAD group also develops API standards to promote interoperability
between audio applications. Thus far the group has produced a low-latency
inter-application connection server (JACK) and a basic audio effects plugin
interface (LADSPA.)

JACK is a solid effort and Octal will support JACK output. The LADSPA standard is not useful for
virtual instruments; various attempts to add support for graphical user interfaces have failed
to reach any consensus. A new LAD effort called XAP---an API for virtual
instruments with sample-accurate events---is in the planning stages.